Eye for helping out

Photographer and retired OCC instructor is selling prints at reduced prices and donating all the money to a damaged fine art museum in New Orleans. Overwhelming generosity has a tendency to surface after natural disasters, such as the summer’s hurricanes.

While many people charitably donate to well-known organizations, such as the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army, others find creative ways to raise and disburse funds.

Retired Orange Coast College professor and photographer Arthur Taussig is one.

After hearing about the hurricanes and the damage caused to the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Costa Mesa resident knew he needed to do something to help restore the arts in the city. Last week, he held an art sale at the college and sold prints for $25 each with 100% of the funds going directly to the museum. Taussig said he will continue to sell his prints at the tremendously discounted price -- his prints usually sell for $300 to $500 -- as long as people show interest and as long as the museum needs it.

“Everything helps,” he said. “I’ve had very good response from across the country.”

Akiko Kennedy, a former student of Taussig’s, attended the sale and bought a print.

“I’m a big fan of him,” said the 30-year-old Costa Mesa resident. “He’s just genius -- I’ve never known anyone like him.... I was lucky to have taken some classes with him.”

Kennedy said she learned a lot about photography from Taussig, 64, who retired two years ago after teaching photography at OCC for 30 years.

Taussig said he sold about a dozen prints at the college sale and got many commitments from students and faculty at the college -- as well as friends throughout the country -- to buy prints later. All of Taussig’s photographs are hand-printed in limited editions of 10. His works are on display at about 50 museums around the world, including the New Orleans Museum of Art.

That museum’s director, John Bullard, said the building sustained nearly $3 million in damage, and the sculpture garden that opened a year ago also had about $3 million in damage.

Only one sculpture was actually damaged and he said it can be repaired. None of the art collection was damaged. Much of the damage will be covered by the museum’s insurance, and the staff is hoping to get some help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as well, Bullard said.

However, he said, these things take a while and in the meantime, much like everywhere else in the city, they had to lay off 85% of the staff and are now down to about 15 employees.

“We’re all doing different things. We’re all multi-tasking, doing things that are not in our job descriptions,” Bullard said, adding that the staff hopes to reopen the sculpture garden by early December and the rest of the museum by March. He said if all goes well, he hopes to be able to rehire the majority of the curatorial staff in January.

Taussig, who holds the New Orleans Museum of Art in high regard because it was one of the first museums to collect photography as fine art, said although reconstruction of the roads and buildings is important, reconstructing the arts scene is just as important for a city like New Orleans.

“Recovery involves more than just the physical construct of the place,” he said, adding that museums are a large part of the city’s culture. “We have to restore our culture there.”

Bullard said the response from the art community has been great -- some artists, such as Taussig, are raising money on their own and the museum is getting some help from various art foundations and organizations across the country.

One French photography dealer is organizing an auction in Paris. Bullard also said France’s minister of culture and the director of the Louvre visited New Orleans last week and agreed to lend the museum an exhibition, which will be displayed in March of 2007, once the hotels and airlines have a chance to get back to normal and accommodate tourists.

“I figure if I can help a little bit ... everything helps,” Taussig said. “Hopefully people like what they see and contribute to the museum.”

Taussig has been working hard since retirement, traveling and taking pictures. His work depicts the interesting and strange collections at all sorts of museums. He likes to focus on the lesser-known museums, which he says have some of the most bizarre collections.

“Often they have stuff that is sort of amazing,” he said, thumbing through his prints and pointing out items such as a Mickey Mouse gas mask for kids and Hitler’s bed sheets, both found at the 54th Infantry Division Museum in Oklahoma City. “I don’t claim to understand this stuff; I just photograph it.... A lot of these museums are not known, and I would like to bring some attention to them.”

Taussig said he hopes to compile his work from the past few years and turn it into a book on museums. He said he thinks people can learn a lot about a culture by its museums because what’s on display reflects the values being passed down.

“This all reflects our culture,” he said. “This is us.”

To see Taussig’s prints, visit www.arthur taussig.com. For more information on the New Orleans Museum of Art, visit www .noma.org. For donations, make checks payable to New Orleans Museum of Art, at P.O. Box 107, Baton Rouge, LA 70821.

20051109ipo5rtknDON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA)Retired photography instructor Arthur Taussig is donating money raised by selling prints to a damaged museum in New Orleans.